Into The Dark
by HVK
Summary: What was Susan Strong up to following the events of Beautopia? What has she been up to while Fin met Flame Princess and all the adventures since? What lays underground Ooo, and what terrible mysteries lay beneath the chaos above? Susan Strong voyages beyond the borders of Beautopia, following after her idol Finn, and none else know what lurks below... in the dark.


I wondered, what has Susan been up to in recent seasons? And I thought, having epic adventures underground.

Disclaimer: I do not own Adventure time.

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Finn was a hero to those above; a shining exemplar of those that did the Right Thing above all else, a juggernaut that struck like lightning from the heavens, a boy with all the power of the storm in human form, moving through everything in his path like greased light and leaving only goodness and happier things in his wake.

To those below, in the underground realm of Beautopia, he was mostly considered as 'that weird thing that's probably the same sort of critter that Susan is but was pretty nice'.

Susan, though…

Susan knew how the world saw him, and after the seventh time she cast out invaders seeking to conquer Beautopia, and had made sure that they were folded in half and broken, realized that what Finn was to the surface world, she was to the people of Beautopia.

She sat atop the mighty temple at the very center of the hyooman's home, _her _home too, and thought. Her hands clasped unconsciously, fingers twiddling together as she shifted around uneasily. The world was moving around here; not literally, but in her head, and that was actually a lot scarier than the world shaking up for real.

(Susan knew all about things that were scary. She was scared about a lot a things so she obviously learned more about them so she could know exactly _how _scared of them she should be instead of messing up her thinking-meat by making up scary bits that weren't really there. Beautopia was an old place, with many books sheltered from mildew or rot and computers still miraculously functional despite the lub-glubs best attempts to break everything that was good and artificial. There was plenty of time for her to learn, and it was fun like a lot of things weren't. She was surprised how learning about things made them not scary at all.)

The world felt a little smaller, now. The surface wasn't a place they had forgotten about and hid away generations ago, any more (though Susan sometimes had vague memories of light and heat, and she must have been very small when she had seen whatever it was); it was right over their heads and people came from there every day, though her efforts and Finn's occasional assistance had made those intrusions much more infrequent.

Susan looked down, peering into the tunnels in the waterways, that led from Beautopia and into distant places; the water flowed to the vast chamber that the hyoomans had taken shelter in, through long and dark twisty passages to far places she had only read frightened tales of, where the lub-glubs had come from-

She kept thinking, even though that was scary. The lub-glubs were _all dead_. She had seen it done herself, and burned the rest. If they found any others, like babies too young to follow in their parent's ways, she made up her mind that the hyoomans would take them home to Beautopia. Maybe they could train them, and pull boats or attack intruders. That would be _great!_

Slowly she stood up and walked down, thoughtfully. Finn was a certain something to the surface world; a hero, a champion. Someone to strive to be like, a paragon of goodness. More than that, he was something people emulated and admired, because he _protected _them, fought for them. Saved them from evil.

Susan walked to the ground level of Beautopia, amid the ancient stones and the waterways sloshing heavily against canals. Dozens, maybe hundreds, of hyoomans were all around in her immediate vision, and may of them waved to her. A few of them hurried away into the water, bashful at the sight of her, and still others looking at her in open admiration.

Susan considered this; the knowing of it had been pressing on her for a while, and she couldn't push it back for any longer.

She looked up, towards the surface, and wondered that wherever Finn is, if he knew what it was like to know what he meant to people. What _she _meant to her people.

Susan was not a hyooman. She did not have gills, she could not breathe underwater, and she was not of their kith. And that didn't matter because they were still her people. They loved her, and she loved them.

Susan wondered if she was perhaps obligated to move through those dark passages, and find the evil there, and slay it.

And perhaps there were other people there too; people like the hyoomans not in shape but in thinking, people in need of a champion or with champions of their own that would welcome friendship and community.

Susan shivered at the notion; her legs were strong and wide like a tree, but they trembled like warm gelation, and felt no more powerful.

It was the hardest thing she remembered, stepping into the nearest empty boat and pushing off, moving into the darkness and leaving the light of Beautopia behind.

But Finn had taught her something, even if he didn't know it; that the world was a tattered place, a wild and feral place, dangerous and monstrous, and there were only small points of light for civilization and decency to burn through the darkness. And the people had a responsibility to carry that light into the dark places.

Susan paddled, though she want to cry and go back and hide, and something steeled her spine all the same. It was the knowing that she was doing something that had to be done, and it was Good, and she was doing a great thing.

Susan went into the dark, her great hulking form a little slumped, and before she was gone from sight, she stood up straighter, noble and solemn.


End file.
